Spring often yields hope eternal in college football, for a new season offers new opportunities to forget previous failures and focus on future success. Accordingly, optimism abounded Saturday afternoon, as the Duke football program held its annual intrasquad spring scrimmage.
For the record, the White offensive unit outscored its Blue counterpart 28-14, but for all those involved, what mattered most was not the final score, but rather what progress had been made over the spring practices.
"I was very pleased with what I saw today," Duke coach Carl Franks said. "I saw people being physical. I saw people making some tackles [and] people making plays on offense and defense."
Duke's quarterbacks were clearly the stars of Saturday's scrimmage. Incumbent starter D. Bryant finished 8-of-16 for 160 yards and one touchdown, sophomore transfer Chris Dapolito connected on nine out of his 14 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown and sophomore Adam Smith shone brightest, posting 154 passing yards and three touchdowns.
Franks cited familiarity within Duke's offensive scheme as the principle reason for the trio's success.
"I think experience in the system is critical," Franks said. "Being able to know when to audible, what to audible to and just having a better feel for the game is something that [the quarterbacks] have evolved to over the years."
Although some coaches might rue a potential quarterback controversy, Franks said he enjoyed watching his top three quarterbacks
"They are doing very well, they are competing very well," he said. "We need guys to compete against each other and with each other."
Duke's air attack spread the ball around to wide receivers, running backs and tight ends alike. Receiver Reggie Love caught two touchdown passes and tailback Cedric Dargan finished with a game-high six catches for 80 yards. Keeping with Duke tradition, the Blue Devil quarterbacks also frequently targeted their tight ends, who even with the loss of All-ACC performer Mike Hart, plan to figure prominently in Duke's offensive system.
"We've always had great tight ends here," Dapolito said. "We've had Mike Hart, and now [we have] Nick Brzezinski and the rest of the guys. They are great tight ends. They can move, they've got great hands and they fit perfectly in our offense."
Of course, the offense's tremendous success through the air came directly at the expense of Duke's much maligned defensive secondary, which struggled mightily last season against opposing offenses.
"The secondary is certainly a concern," Franks said. "It's been one for a couple of years. We've got to try to get the right guys over there, continue to work on their fundamentals. We've got some young guys coming in who will hopefully give us some competition there, but it is an area of concern for us."
New defensive coordinator Ted Roof's aggressive defensive scheme further exposed the secondary's vulnerability. Upon his arrival
As linebacker Ryan Fowler noted, Roof's scheme offers a feeling of empowerment and control to Duke's front seven.
"It's kind of a Obring it to us' attitude," Fowler said. "It's a much more aggressive attitude, a much more aggressive defense. It's one that really stresses toughness."
By default, however, blitz packages isolate defensive backs against opposing wideouts, and if the pass rush fails to take down the quarterback quickly, secondaries are ripe to be victimized.
Another area of concern was the excessive amount of false start penalties accumulated by the offensive line. Franks explained, though, that a lack of depth and warm conditions made the scrimmage particularly difficult for lineman.
"We don't have that many offensive lineman, and today was the warmest day we have had all spring," he said. "We also ran more plays than we have run in any scrimmage all spring."
After the intrasquad competition concluded, Franks said he felt upbeat and confident. The Blue Devils finished the day injury-free, and although the intrasquad competition identified certain potential problems, Duke's coach felt optimistic about the upcoming summer workouts.
"We've got a few things to work on," Franks said. "We're not ready to play a game yet, but then we don't need to be read to play a game yet."
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